a multi-step policy, planning, design and TRANSFORMATION process facilitated by design professionals, defined and driven by youth.
Youth have few places in the city to call their own. Traditional public space doesn't inspire, and their own way of appropriating urban territory is suppressed, even criminalized. In communities of concentrated disadvantage this is most pronounced, with youth forced to improvise with left-over and afterthought spaces. Young people are being pushed to the margins of their own communities.
Cityspaceyouthproject addresses this deficit. It offers a process for youth--particularly in under-served communities--to build public open space in their own image. The Project embraces the notion that youth, instead of at risk, should be seen as uniquely qualified to find, create and transform urban places for themselves.
Cityspaceyouthproject is a multi-step policy, planning, design and transformation process, facilitated by design professionals but defined and driven by youth. Young people identify places they want; they negotiate for these spaces; they are engaged in the design of the place; and, they seek funding for implementation on a case-by-case basis. Design professionals guide them through this grass-roots process, but never lapse into top-down approaches. This is public space shaped by youth in their own image, inspired by their own unique life experiences.